An interesting observation, Mechta... and something like you propose (for the cable supports) might well be added eventually.
I posted this on another thread, in response to comments about how incompetent LM had to be to screw up something as "simple" and well-known as catching the wire.
Originally Posted by GK121 posting as Bager1968
Of course, many have forgotten the problem the F/A-18A Hornet ran into during its initial carrier trials... specifically during the full-payload portion.
Simply put, the main landing gear had been designed incorrectly... when at or near max payload, with a centerline fuel drop tank mounted, every so often the landing gear would flex a bit too far during catapult launch, and the catapult shuttle would split the bottom of the fuel tank open!
Naturally, this was deemed undesirable, and carrier certification was halted until a fix was found.
It was determined that the entire main gear assembly, and possibly the center-fuselage section, would need to be redesigned... which was far too expensive.
The next-best fix was to lower the catapult tracks on all the carriers a few inches... and this is what was eventually done.
As this would only be done during a scheduled long maintenance period, modification of the carriers lagged behind replacement of the A-7s with Hornets... resulting in several carrier deployments with an extra A-6 squadron and extra aircraft in both F-14 squadrons and both A-6 squadrons.
This personally impacted me, as my USMC A-6E squadron [VMA(AW)-121] was assigned to CVW-2 aboard USS Ranger CV-61 from 11/85 to 8/89... during which time we made two 2-month deployments to Korea and two 6-month WestPac/IO cruises... and flew escort for tanker convoys through the Persian Gulf (late 1987).
Ranger had not been modified yet, so we had that "F-14/A-6 only" air wing. Ranger operated without any Hornets at all until her decommissioning in 1993 (2 years after the last USN A-7 squadrons transitioned to other types).
In that case, the carriers were modified because the aircraft fix would have been so expensive... and only the carriers needed to be modified (the land-based catapults at Pax River had been modified during the testing)... there were no land-based catapults elsewhere to be concerned about.
The last paragraph was in reference to comments made by others about the need to modify the emergency field arresting gear on all bases world-wide that a F-35C might divert to with an in-flight emergency.